Six New Seed Hatchery Teams Chosen

By Andy Meek

Seed Hatchery is Memphis’ high-growth tech startup accelerator and puts entrepreneurs through a 90-day boot camp, with a crash course in customer discovery, business development, go-to-market strategies and investor pitches. And this year’s cohort marks the third collection of founders to go through the program.

This year’s batch includes startups focused on music, digital publishing, scientific research and social enterprises. It also includes three University of Memphis journalism graduates, two women CEOs and one female co-founder, founders who range in age from their 20s to their 50s, Seed Hatchery’s first co-founders who are also married and a co-founder of the startup Kangaroo who’s also part of the band Star & Micey.

“It is no surprise that each year the decision process gets tougher for our investment committee,” said LaunchYourCity CEO and Seed Hatchery founder Eric Mathews. “One thing we’re thrilled to see is an order of magnitude increase in women founders.”

Seed Hatchery gets started Feb. 9. Each team gets $15,000 in seed funding and will work with seasoned mentors. Investor Day, when the teams will formally make pitches for funding, is May 16.

Seed Hatchery is funded in part through an INCITE grant from the state of Tennessee and LaunchTennessee, awarded to LaunchYourCity Inc. and Memphis Bioworks. The startup companies’ seed investments are made by Solidus Co.

Screwpulp PublishingRichard Billings, CEO, Will Phillips, co-founder and lead designerFrom the company itself: “Screwpulp is going to change how authors self-publish and distribute their work like never before.”

SodbusterPam Cooper, CEO, Tom Cooper, chief technology officerSodbuster is a cloud-based platform that connects independent nonprofit organizations with local merchants to a local community marketplace for fundraisers and local businesses.

MusisticJustin Olita, CEO, Vince Rogers, co-founder and vice-president, Brian Wentzloff, co-founder and chief technology officerMusistic is a social collaboration platform that uses cloud-based music creation intelligence, as well as a smart matching technology, to bring musicians together to play.